Atlanta slowed Kaepernick, S.F. sped away

Colin Kaepernick ran for 181 yards last week, and Atlanta wanted to make sure no such record-setting shenanigans happened again. So the Falcons held the quarterback to 21 yards rushing Sunday in the NFC Championship Game, punching their ticket to the Super …

Wait. With a sleight of hand that comes with the read-option offense, Kaepernick handed the ball off on three rushing touchdowns as the 49ers came from 17 points down to win.

“It was a cat and mouse game,” Falcons safety Thomas DeCoud said.

And the 49ers were the cat.

LaMichael James scored on 15-yard inside-read run in the second quarter, and then Frank Gore scampered in twice on similar plays in the second half. Atlanta defenders, yelled at all week in practice to not let Kaepernick get outside, stopped to make sure he didn’t as the running backs were taking the ball and darting inside.

“That’s the read-option, man, that’s what it’s designed to do,” Falcons safety William Moore said. “Stall you for a minute, and for a fast, physical defense, to take them off their game.

“They did an excellent job, they’ve been doing it all season. They got it to perfection.”

San Francisco ran for 143 of their 149 yards in the last three quarters, thanks to adjustments to how Atlanta reacted to their formations.

“They figured out our check,” DeCoud said, “and once they saw us make our check, they would make another check. It was a game of chess out there.”

The 49ers thought the Falcons would focus on Kaepernick and were ready.

“We knew we’d be able to run Frank,” tackle Joe Staley said. “We have a lot of talented weapons on this team. We know that’s one of the advantages of this offense.

“You try to take away Kaepernick’s running ability, we’ll hit you with Frank and make some passes downfield.”

Gore finished with 90 yards and two TDs on 21 carries, while Kaepernick only had the 21 yards on two carries.

“I think we did a pretty good job of keeping him under wraps and minimizing his big-play ability,” Cal alum DeCoud said. “We wanted to make him one dimensional by forcing him to make throws from the pocket.

“At the end of the day, you have to tip your cap to him.”

Kaepernick was kept in the pocket on 21 of his 23 dropbacks (91.3 percent), his highest rate of the season, according to ESPN Stats.

But the Falcons only sacked him once, with defensive end John Abraham playing with a bad ankle. The 49ers’ offensive line deserved a lot of credit for the running success as well, cornerback Dunta Robinson said.

“Their offensive line did a great job of opening up holes, that was the main thing,” Robinson said.

San Francisco’s offensive line averages 317 pounds to the Falcons’ defensive line’s 276, so the 49ers were not only the cat to the Falcons’ mouse, but they were a very large cat.